ISIS Threatens Journalist Steven Sotloff After Apparent Beheading Of James Foley

By Brianna Lee
International Business Times

Militants from the Islamic State, who released a video Tuesday appearing to show the beheading of  U.S journalist James Wright Foley, also threatened to kill another man, believed to be U.S. journalist Steven Joel Sotloff.

A man identified in the video as Sotloff, dressed in the same type of orange jumpsuit Foley wore, is shown at the end of the clip after Foley’s apparent beheading, alongside an ISIS member dressed in black.

“The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” the ISIS member said, referring to the U.S.’s campaign of targeted airstrikes against ISIS. YouTube removed the video Tuesday evening for violating its policy on depicting graphic violence.

Sotloff, a freelance journalist who had reported on Egypt, Syria, and Libya for TIME, the Christian Science Monitor, the National Interest and Foreign Policy magazine, went missing on Aug. 4, 2013, while on assignment near Aleppo, Syria. Jon Williams, foreign editor for ABC News, tweeted that Sotloff’s family had been advised to avoid spreading the news of Sotloff’s kidnapping.

 

Sotloff’s last tweet was on Aug. 3, 2013, the day before he is believed to have been kidnapped. Although his Twitter profile stated he was based in Libya, most of his recent tweets referenced Syria, and he mentioned being pepper sprayed by riot police in Antakya on July 31.

The man believed to be Sotloff is alive in the video. It is unclear what may have happened in the interim or what ISIS’s deadline for its threat may be.